Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1021376
O N T H E J O B SPRING/SUMMER 2018 15 DAVID KIM / NICKELODEON At the age of 10, Kim participated in an after-school program taught by animators who worked on The Nightmare Before Christmas. After that, he knew he wanted to pursue animation. He studied film and CG at NYU then freelanced in New York City before moving to LA in 2008. WHAT ARE YOUR MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES? The main responsibilities are to make geometries look great in motion as they deform and to make character rigs easy to use! Of course, it takes a lot to fulfill those requirements. As for my responsibilities as a rigging supervisor, I develop and maintain our character pipeline, solve problems, teach rigging concepts and programming, advise character design and modeling in regards to rig efficacy, field questions, and rig characters whenever I can. WALK ME THROUGH A TYPICAL DAY. We might have a meeting to go over anything we need to be aware of between departments. Afterwards, I'll grab a coffee and check my e-mail to make sure that our characters are performing well and see if anyone needs my attention. When all is clear, I'll check in with my artists to set goals for the day and make sure we are on track for delivery. And when the day seems to be set in motion, I'll jump on a rig and get as much as I can get done before anyone needs technical support. When global problems arise or models are not ready to be rigged, I modify the pipeline and develop new tools and systems to make sure things are running as efficiently as possible. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PART OF THE JOB? My favorite part is seeing our characters animated of course! When a character's performance respects the emotional requirements of the scene, I'm on cloud nine. It also gives us the opportunity to see what we can do better. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE CHALLENGES? Time. TV production is fast and we rarely have downtime, so time management and task prioritization are crucial. DO YOU HAVE ANY HOT KEYS OR TECHNICAL TRICKS YOU MIGHT SHARE? Use them, modify them, and make new ones. Get to know your marking menus. Anything that can take you from point A to point B faster, no matter how seemingly insignificant, will multiply its usefulness. One of my tried and true hot keys switches between unheld influences. It saves a lot of hassle, keeps me in add mode, and goes into weight painting mode to boot!